Activity in Acute Public Hospitals in Ireland, 2009 Annual Report

30 November 2010

Activity in Acute Public Hospitals in Ireland, 2009 Annual Report

Health Research and Information Division, The Economic & Social Research Institute This report presents information on discharges from Irish acute public hospitals participating in the Hospital In-Patient Enquiry (HIPE) scheme in 2009. The HIPE system is supported by the HSE which, together with the Department of Health & Children, receive the data on a monthly basis from the ESRI. The hospitals that collect the data have available to them a reporting system which enables immediate access to the data for management and other purposes. At the national level, HIPE data may be used by the Department of Health & Children to inform policy decisions, while the HSE may use the data to inform decisions on a range of issues including hospital budgeting, management, reconfiguration etc. This report presents information on t he number of day and in-patient discharges from acute public hospitals in 2009, together with their demographic characteristics and geographical distribution. The number and type of diagnoses and procedures reported for discharges and the case mix treated are also profiled. Some of the main findings of the 2009 report are:

• Over 1.41 million discharges were reported by the participating hospitals compared to 1.37 million discharges in 2008 – an increase of 3.1%.
• Over half of total discharges were day patients (58.2%); the remainder were in-patients (41.8%). Day patient discharges increased by 6.4% and in-patient discharges decreased by 1.2% between 2008 and 2009.
• Total discharges used close to 4.43 million bed days in 2009, a decrease of 1.0% on the 2008 figure. Acute in-patients accounted for 40.7% of total discharges and 58.3% of total bed days. Extended stay in-patients (length of stay >30 days) accounted for 1.1% of total discharges and 23.2% of total bed days. Day patients accounted for 18.5% of total bed days.
• The average length of stay for acute in-patient discharges was 4.5 days. This varied by hospital type as voluntary hospitals recorded an average length of stay of 5.9 days for acute in-patients compared to a length of stay average of 4.4 days reported for regional hospitals.
• 13.1% of total discharges were treated in special hospitals with the remainder treated in general hospitals, where voluntary hospitals treated 30.1%, regional hospitals treated 26.2%, and county hospitals treated 30.6% of total discharges.
• Just over 60% of total in-patient discharges were admitted as emergencies with a further 20.9% admitted as maternities with the remainder admitted on a planned basis.
• Day patient activity peaked in July 2009. Planned in-patient admissions peaked in September, emergency in-patient admissions peaked in March and maternity admissions peaked in July.
• There were differences in the daily patterns of admission and discharge activity. In-patient admissions were highest at the beginning of the week, while over one-fifth of all in-patient discharges occurred on a Friday. Only 9.6% of in-patients were discharged on a Saturday and 7.8% of in-patients were discharged on a Sunday.
• The 75 to 84 year age group had one of the highest discharge rates for in-patients (402.7 discharges per 1,000 members of the population in this age group compared to 132.2 per 1,000 members of the population for total in-patient discharges). Over one-fifth (21.6%) of in-patient bed days were used by discharges in this age group, even though they accounted for only 11.3% of total in-patient discharges.
• Medical card holders accounted for just under half (46.6%) of in-patient discharges. In-patient discharges with a medical card stayed an average of 7.9 days in hospital, which was on average 3.4 days longer than in-patient discharges without a medical card.
• Public discharges accounted for 76.1% of in-patient discharges and the remainder were private. The total in-patient average length of stay was slightly longer for public discharges (6.3 days) compared to private discharges (5.6 days). Some 82.1% of day patient discharges were public discharges. Public discharges increased by 4.2% between 2008 and 2009, while private discharges decreased by 1.2%.
• 64.9% of total in-patient discharges underwent a principal procedure, with an average of 2.8 procedures performed for each discharge.

Notes for editors:

• In 2009, 57 public hospitals in Ireland reported to HIPE.
• The Hospital In-Patient Enquiry scheme is a computer-based health information system designed to collect clinical and administrative data on discharges from, and deaths in, acute hospitals in Ireland. The ESRI has been responsible for managing, and reporting on, the HIPE scheme on behalf of the Department of Health and Children and the Health Service Executive since 1990.
• The current and previous HIPE Annual Reports are available at: https://www.esri.ie/health_information/latest_hipe_nprs_reports

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